Plans to strip Network Rail of complete control of England's railway tracks are a retrograde step that raises the spectre of the Hatfield train crash in 2000 which happened under the privately-owned Railtrack

A protest meeting and march will be held in Leicester on Saturday (29 October) to stop the moves which will see the East Midlands lose this facility – it performs about 300 operations a year on children born with heart defects.

Unite national officer for health Sarah Carpenter said: “Since 2010 NHS staff have seen their incomes in real terms eroded by more than 15 per cent which has provoked a recruitment and retention crisis across the NHS."